My not-so-profound thoughts about valuation, corporate finance and the news of the day!

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

The Little Book of Valuation

I don't like to use this blog as a publicity front, but my newest book just hit the bookstores. It is part of Wiley's Little Book series and it is titled "The Little Book of Valuation". My motivation for writing the book was simple. While I have three books on valuation - Investment Valuation, Damodaran on Valuation and The Dark Side of Valuation", they are all written for valuation practitioners. They are dense, not easy to read and require work to put into practice. I have always wanted to write a book for investors, many of seem to believe that valuation is far too complex for them to handle. That view makes them easy prey for valuation experts and analysts, who use a mixture of bombast, buzz words and numbers to intimidate.

As I started to write the book, I set myself two objectives. The first was to not short change readers, by assuming that they were not skilled enough to do valuation. I think valuation is fundamentally simple but that we choose to layer complexities on it. So, I wanted to provide investors with the tools to do a full fledged valuation of any type of company - young or old, mature or growth, cyclical or commodity. The second was to cut through the details of valuation models and identify the value drivers for any company. Even in the most complex valuation models, the value of a stock is determined by one or two key inputs. Knowing what those inputs are and how to estimate them is 90% of valuation. More importantly, if you know the drivers of value, you can create investment strategies that are built around those drivers, even if you choose not to do a full-fledged valuation. If you get a chance to take a look at the book, you will notice that the chapters are structured around different types of companies and that each chapter is centered around identifying the "value drivers" for that type of company and the "value plays" that emerge from these drivers.

Since I did write the book, I cannot give you an unbiased assessment of how well I did in accomplishing my objectives. I hope you do get a chance to browse through the book and I really hope that you not only find it useful but an easy read. If you are interested in getting the book, here is the Amazon link:http://www.amazon.com/Little-Book-Valuation-Company-Profit/dp/1118004779/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpt_1
To support the book, I have put together spreadsheets and other material in a website for the book. You can visit it by clicking here.

Aswath, I recently purchased the Kindle edition of this book and already finished the first few chapters. It is so well written! I just finished Prem Jain's "Buffett Beyond Value," which is another great book but which focuses more on intrinsic value estimation and keeps more general outlook. Your book fills that gap. You succinctly describe the valuation techniques without making it academic. I can only imagine how tough this task must have been! I hope to write a review on Amazon once I finish the book, but I have already started recommending it to my colleagues, friends, and relatives. Thanks!

I began The Little Book of Valuation this morning, with great excitement. However, I have reached a point where I need some clarification, because I am having trouble with some of your math. As one example, your Cost of Equity sample: 3.72% +1.29 * 4% = 9.16%

My math skills are not at your level, I am sure; however, everything I have been taught about math suggests that the result should be 8.88%, not 9.16%.

I have some other examples, if they would be helpful.

So: Where am I going wrong? (Or, if I am correct, is there an list of errata with corrections that I can reference?)